Back in the game!

One of my new year's resolutions last year was to get back into blogging. I've just spent a furious 10 minutes trying every password I've ever had, trying to log into this account, and upon flicking through my previous posts, it seems I outdid myself. I blogged twice in 2017. In January. Well, nobody really keeps their resolutions, do they?

Anyway, we're almost at the end of March, and I've just finished a run of my first play of the year, back once again in my second home of beautiful Bedford. This blog post comes to you from the depths of post-show nothingness. I haven't yet felt the despair that I sometimes get of missing a show (I definitely enjoyed it), but maybe that's because I've kept myself busy today, and I haven't really had time to think upon it.

The play in question was 'Life x 3'. Again, as in previous posts, I won't divulge details in case of spoilers for people who may see it in the future, but I had enormous fun. My regular Bedford stage husband (as he will now be referred to) recommended me to the director, who gave me a call to chat about it. Not wanting to seem too desperate(!), I said I'd read the script before making a decision, but on hearing who the other actors already cast were, there was no way I wasn't going to do it.

A good chunk of the play was focused on science and space talk. All of which went flying over my head faster than you can say, "the flatness of the Milky Way's dark halo!", whatever that means! And to tell you the truth, it was only today that I actually Googled a few words (unrelated to science) to find out what they meant. I must have done a pretty good job of pretending to know what everyone was saying! And now I can use the word 'lugubrious' in everyday conversation!

It was a good run, and I got to share the stage with some amazing people.

But enough about the play itself. It's been over a year since I did a run of a show that made me feel the way I do right now. Sure, I had work for the rest of last year, and I loved every job, but there was something about this week that made me question myself.

I have a job that I enjoy in teaching and writing and directing shows for my students, but am I pushing myself enough? I want to get out there and do more things.

Why am I not writing things for myself? I have friends that I would kill to work with and produce fun projects with, and I'm not doing that. Why not?
People enjoy the things that I write. People are incredibly complimentary about my performances (even when I think that I certainly don't deserve them (Friday night this week- ouch!)

I see other people out there doing amazing things, and I feel like I'm being left behind. Am I just settling and hoping that someone keeps recommending me for projects or relying on companies I've previously worked for to give me a call? That's not enough, and I'd be stupid to think it was.

So with a bit of luck, I'm hoping 2018 turns out to be more successful. Because something has clicked in my head this week. I want to have the best times with the best people doing the thing that I love. If other people can do it, why can't I?

Watch this space, she's coming back!


N

Tomcat

I'm not going to lie to you, I'm hungover. It's 3pm and I've got back into bed after an epic shower, and I'm wrapped in towels and trying to work out how to lower the brightness on my laptop screen.

I drank a lot of wine last night. I think. I had at least three red wines and two glasses of Prosecco. Turns out I can't handle it like I used to. I probably also need to calm down when people tell me that I can drink for free.

It was the last night of my first play of the year and we went out with a bang!

The play in question was 'Tomcat'. I don't want to give too much away because people may want to see it in the future and I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but let's just say that it wasn't the happiest of plays!

We began rehearsals in September, I popped over the border to Bedford every Wednesday and had a truly fabulous time. The entire cast were phenomenal. I had a smaller role which meant that I got to watch it a lot, and saw it coming together piece by piece which I don't normally get to do. Even though I was in it, and I knew the story, I was genuinely captivated and on occasion forgot to get ready for my entrances because I was so swept away by it all.

The feedback from our audiences was immense. We got to have some cracking conversations in the bar afterwards, and received nothing but positivity. It is such a well written play, and people lapped it up. Occasionally I would take a sneaky peek at the audience to check out some of their reactions to various moments, and every single person was transfixed. Normally in the theatre there are the annoying people rustling sweets or having a little natter between themselves, but every night they were completely silent for the whole 100 minutes. I've never been in a play where that's happened before.

It's a weird feeling knowing that I'm not going to be going to the theatre tonight. Since Christmas I've been over to Bedford more times than I can remember for rehearsals and obviously performing, and now it's over. I have to stay in miserable Kettering. We all said last night how we felt we were just getting started and were ready to do more performances, but we can't. We're done.

I have no acting work lined up for the rest of the year, and who knows how this year will pan out, but if this is the only thing that I will have done in 2017 I'll be happy. I personally got some incredible compliments about my performance from several people, so I'll keep those in my head for a while and enjoy it while I can!

I love how close people get when we work on shows together, and I will truly miss everyone so much. In every show that I do, there's always the talk of meeting up soon just to hang out, and it's always just that, talk. But I do hope to see everyone soon. I learned so much from everyone, and it was so nice to get to know new people, work with friends and just enjoy myself for a while.

There's talk of taking the play up to Edinburgh this year which would be fantastic if it happens, I don't think I'm quite ready for this one to end just yet.

Thank you, 'Tomcat', it's been amazing. I'll get dressed now.